Nathan Buckley has responded to Heritier Lumumba’s claims of misconduct at Collingwood.
Lumumba alleges an assistant coach used a pornographic image during a team meeting when Buckley was senior coach.
The 35-year-old also claims former Magpies CEO Gary Pert made sexually inappropriate comments in front of players’ partners back in 2011.
Details of Lumumba’s dossier of misconduct claims were revealed in a Herald Sun report.
“I’m not going to be drawn into detail and I’m not going to say that Heritier’s right here, wrong here because that is his perspective of the truth,” Buckley told SEN Breakfast.
“But there are other versions of the truth that are a long way away from the way that he perceives it.
“Mine is very different from what he presents, but the context becomes important and the whole idea of the process is to have open dialogue, respectful dialogue so that you can actually move forward in a positive way.
“It seems that Heritier doesn’t really want to move forward unless, I don’t know, heads need to roll. I don’t know exactly what he’s looking for or what his requirements are to feel like he has been heard.
“He has been apologised to – I’ve apologised to him; the club has apologised to him … for the environment that he’s been in – and not just Heritier – but the other Indigenous players that have come through.”
Buckley continued: “I haven’t been perfect as a leader. I haven’t been perfect as a person.
“I consciously thought of this – I put my head on the pillow last night and I slept well because I know that I have owned my imperfections and I’ve owned the things that I’m responsible for.
“My conscience is clear in that regard – it doesn’t mean I’ve been perfect, it doesn’t mean I couldn’t have done things better – but I’m open-minded to continue to learn and I think the club is as well.”